Chapter 25- It's a Cruel Summer
"Ahh…summer!" Kurenai exclaimed contently as she stretched out her beach chair and plopped it down in the sand. "It's my favorite time of year!"
"Couldn't you think of something more creative other than just going to the beach?" Kakashi asked. "I mean, we've already had a pool party."
"Well, beaches are different." Kurenai said as she turned to the students. "Everyone do something different than what you were doing at the pool party! And my team, you guys can't make a sand castle!"
"Why not?" Kiba demanded as if it really mattered to him.
"Because you made a sand castle during the women's history celebration." Kurenai replied.
"So because we've already made a sand castle once this year we're not allowed to do it again?" Shino questioned.
"Uh…yeah!" said Kurenai.
"Just for that, I am SO going to build a sand castle!" Kiba declared.
"But I already said you couldn't." Kurenai pointed out.
"Yeah." Said Kiba. "And that's the exact reason why I'm going to build one."
"Wait…" Kurenai said, scratching her head in a confused fashion but she was unable to further question Kiba's logic (or lack there of) because he grabbed both Hinata and Shino and sprinted off to find a secret spot where they could build a sand castle. "Oh well. It's not like I ACTUALLY care."
"Okay, so essentially we're just not allowed to play volleyball?" Naruto translated.
"Right." Said the teachers AS A UNIT.
"And, before we set you all loose, we're going to discuss upcoming holidays." Said Asuma, taking out the famous clipboard with all the holidays scribed on it. "June is at a close so July is on its way. You may not know this but July is National Celebrate Life Month."
"You're right, I DIDN'T know that." Said Sasuke.
"Do you always have to throw in a mean spirited snide comment?" Gai said, looking genuinely hurt FOR Asuma.
"Yes." Said Sasuke, crossing his arms.
"We'll explain that thoroughly as the month goes on." Asuma continued since he wasn't as affected as Gai apparently was. "Well, I'm sure you ALL know whose birthday is coming up on the third!"
"NEJI'S!" Gai screamed, getting over his distraught.
"WOW!" Lee exclaimed, slapping his cheeks as he ran over to Neji who as rolling his eyes. "Aren't you excited to be a year older?"
Neji went, "Pffft," and said the one thing he was expected to say; "My birthday isn't something one should celebrate."
The mood of pure excitement was systematically shifted with that simple comment.
"And um…" Asuma went on, not feeling nearly as enthusiastic as before. "So Kurenai will be planning that party…"
"YAY!" cheered Kurenai, trying to get happiness going again. "I'll tell you all what my plans are when the time gets closer!"
"And can one of you take up upon yourself to tell Team 8 everything they missed because they foolishly ran off in such haste to build a sandcastle?" Kakashi requested.
"Hey!" said Kurenai. "Don't call my team foolish!"
As the teachers began an argument, all the students, with the exception of Team 8 who were currently building a sandcastle, frolicked off to the water.
"Let's play tag with the waves!" Lee exclaimed as he ran over to the water's edge and, as the waves splashed against the sand, he quickly ran away. "HAW HAW HAW HAW!" he laughed as he had WAY too much fun.
"Lee, stop it before I harm you." Neji threatened as he grabbed Lee's arm before he could run towards the water again.
"Aw man…" Lee said sadly.
"Sasuke, do you like my brand new bathing suit?" Ino asked.
"It looks exactly the same as the one you wore at Chouji's pool party." Sasuke said.
Ino gasped. "So you noticed me in my bathing suit at Chouji's pool party!" she shrieked.
"Um…" Sasuke said quickly, but he was lucky saved by Naruto's loud exclamation that Sakura looked absolutely GORGEOUS in her bathing suit, and Lee's quick follow up that he believed Sakura looked RADIANT.
"I think I kind of want to build a sandcastle with Team 8." Said Shikamaru, looking longingly back at the beach area.
Meanwhile, with Team 8…
"I know, Shino!" Kiba said, punching one fist into his palm.
"Did you have an epiphany, Kiba?" Shino questioned.
"Yeah!" said Kiba. "We can build this sandcastle for your bugs!"
Shino stared at Kiba long and hard, hoping maybe Kiba would throw in that 'JUST KIDDING!' he so frequently does. When Kiba only sat there with a very excited expression on his face, Shino finally gave a heavy sigh. "They don't want to live in it." He said.
Kiba looked absolutely shocked. "How do you know something like that?" he said.
"They told me."
"Um…" Hinata said, raising her hand a little bit. "Kiba, didn't you make that suggestion last time we made a sandcastle?"
"Thank you, Hinata." Said Shino.
"I don't think I did." Kiba said thoughtfully.
It was then that Shikamaru followed through with his decision and came over to help with the sandcastle. It was awkward at first, but Chouji joined him pretty soon after that and within about ten minutes, just about EVERYONE was helping with the massive sandcastle.
Except for Lee, of course, because now that Neji wasn't there to keep him from playing tag with the waves, he could now play tag with the waves in peace.
"You know, I can see why you guys like building sandcastles so much." Tenten commented.
"It's not like we like building sandcastles sandcastles, we just so happened to be building them on two different occasions." Shino said but he was ignored as usual.
"Well, I'm really only building this sandcastle to annoy Kurenai." Kiba admitted.
"I don't think Kurenai's annoyed." Hinata said.
"She's just not showing it!" Kiba said ambitiously.
"HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW!" came Lee's way too excited laugh as he continued to play tag with the waves and everyone tried not to stare.
"All right, I'm bored with this." Naruto decided as he stood up. "Who wants to dig a hole with me and then bury someone in it?"
"That takes WAY too much effort." Shikamaru said.
"Shikamaru, you are SO—"
Ino was promptly silenced because she received the scariest chuunin-iest glare from Shikamaru EVER.
"Well, I brought this boogie board…" Kiba said with a shrug.
"BOOGIE BOARD! MINE!" screamed Naruto.
Without fail, if there is one boogie board and two people who want to use it, there is officially an all-out war.
They started having a tug-o-war, and Naruto's argument was that Kiba didn't even want to use it until he saw that Naruto wanted to use it…while Kiba argued that it was HIS boogie board so he got right to use it first!
Finally, Sasuke decided that he didn't want to hear anymore of this argument so he got up and used his fire moves that never work on the boogie board and caused it to ignite into flames. Kiba and Naruto then threw it out into the water as not to burn themselves. But of course they didn't let the incinerated corpse of the boogie board float out into the sea because then that's polluting, so they quickly collected it and threw it into the nearest trash receptacle.
"Great." Said Naruto. "Now NEITHER of us can boogie board at all. This is all your fault, Kiba!"
"My fault?" Kiba said. "How is this MY fault?"
"You didn't let me use your boogie board!" Naruto answered as if it was completely obvious.
"HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW!" came the combined laughter of both Gai and Lee playing tag with the waves.
"That is getting really annoying." Neji said, looking very close to jumping up, running over and strangling both Lee and Gai.
"So what do you guys want to do instead?" said Chouji. "I mean, we're stuck at this beach for only our teachers know how long, so we might as well make the best of it."
"I'm going to sleep." Said Shikamaru as he lied down right then and there and began his attempts to fall asleep, but it was pretty obvious that Ino began elevating her tone of speech just so he WOULDN'T fall asleep.
"Did you guys know that, annually, more people are killed by donkeys than die in air crashes?" Kiba asked.
Quite randomly.
"Um…no, we didn't know that." Said Sasuke.
"Is that true?" Sakura said. Kiba nodded.
"Kiba, are you mixing medications?" Shino inquired. "Or, quite possibly, did you neglect to take your medication all together?"
"Shino! I'm INSULTED!" said Kiba. "I was just trying to start conversation!"
"WHY?" said Neji. "We were already in the middle of a conversation."
"Well, I was bored with that conversation!" Kiba said defensively.
"So you'd rather talk about donkeys and car crashes?" Tenten said, baffled.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I WOULD!" Kiba declared openly as if he was a big rebel for preferring that.
"All right, all right," said Ino. "Let's just put all that weird stuff aside and instead talk about what we're going to do while we're stuck here."
"I'm still all for digging that hole and burying someone." Naruto shrugged.
Everyone sighed and eventually decided that they wanted to dig the hole too. Since Shikamaru was the only one against it in the first place and he was now asleep, they didn't have to feel stupid for agreeing with Naruto that that would be a fun way to pass their time.
So everyone worked together to dig quite the deep hole. It was so deep and intense that random small children who passed by would have to stop and shriek with joy. Some people even wept.
Finally, when they figured their hole was deep enough, they had to decide whom they would bury. Their initial thought was Lee since he was still playing tag with the water and it was ever so annoying. But then they realized how troublesome it would be to drag Lee over to the hole and force him to cooperate.
Then, of course, after this reasoning for NOT dragging Lee over to the hole, they discovered the PERFECT person for the torture! Even though Chouji protested at first, even he could resist that tossing Shikamaru into the hole while he slept and then covering him with sand was just HILARIOUS.
So they did just that. Of course, after you fall into a hole quite uncomfortably, even someone like Shikamaru can't remain sleeping so he awoke in quite the frazzled state and pulled himself up out of the hole and was HEAPING big angry for this disrespect! Everyone pretended to be apologetic, but they could only chuckle warmly, resting assured with the thought in mind that Shikamaru had PLENTY of sand in his trunks.
"Okay, that was fun." Said Naruto. "I'm satisfied."
They all had to then clean off their hands with the exception of Shikamaru who had to clean off his whole body. He tried to hold a grudge, but finally came to the conclusion that grudges are troublesome and let it all slide.
"HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW!" laughed Lee with such glee as he once again dodged a wave that surely would have tagged him if not for his incredible speed.
Neji was feeling unstable and maybe even a little psychotic at the time because he hadn't gotten the opportunity to alleviate his anger on Father's Day so he turned around and Gentle Fisted Lee as far as he would go. For once, everyone was thankful for Neji's instability.
"Nicely done." Said Tenten.